Comprising experimental poetry and prose, Friendly + Fire interrogates the male subjective experience of war and the gendered implications of camaraderie or “brotherhood” while aligning the seriousness of a war target with the frivolities of gossip: “MILITARY LINGO SUBLIMATES SMACK TALK FROM HERE ON IN.”

Friendly + Fire employs a character named H.S. (also to be read as “his”) as a filter for engaging with and through real-life stories of friendly fire. In the first section, the Tarnak Farm Incident (where four Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan were killed by American Air Force pilot Harry Schmidt) is used as source material, intersecting with questions about receiving a “pink slip” from one’s employer and the mental and physical conditions endured by fighter pilots (suppressed appetite, prescribed sedatives and amphetamines to regulate sleep, and stress tolerance). Reductionist language is used to describe friendship in the 21st century (forced affect in the workplace and Facebook friends).

Act I of LaFrance’s first book, Species Branding, ends with the line: “crippled on my last leg. where are our friends?” It is a question that has carried forward into Friendly + Fire, acting as the connective tissue between these two texts.

“An appropriately intelligent book that does not hold back for any person or anything. It rouses, coughs and spits in protest, defies and enlightens all the same. … In its grimmest moment, Friendly + Fire reminds me of who we are and who we have the potential to be.”—Queen Mob’s Tea House

"Friendly + Fire is a capella pornography, a multi-vocal argument concerning the collateral damages attendant upon military aggression, where the exceptional conditions definitive of combat suffuse an everyday civic.”—League of Canadian Poets blog

By Danielle LaFrance

Danielle LaFrance is a poet, librarian, and militant. Since 1983 she has mostly resided on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Skxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She is the author Species Branding (CUE, 2010) and Friendly Fire (Talonbooks, 2016) as well as the chapbook Pink Slip (SIC, 2013).

…and the caustic and playful poetics and prose of Friendly Fire by Danielle LaFrance, to 1970s Vancouver in …
and labour Danielle LaFrance reads from Friendly Fire, with the cover artwork by Megan Hepburn …

…LaFrance to the Talon poetry list. Her new book, Friendly Fire, interrogates the male subjective experience of …
war and “brotherhood.” Order your copy of Friendly Fire today for $18.95. Finally, we welcome Anahita …

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